Chinese social media claim on Palawan

In May 2012, He Jia, an anchor of the state-run China Central Television (CCTV) accidentally said "the Philippines belongs to Chinese sovereignty". She apparently meant to say "Huangyan Islands", the Chinese name for the Scarborough Shoal, where a standoff had taken place between the two countries. The broadcast was eventually taken down, and the statement generated mainly sarcastic responses on Chinese social media with the exception of one supportive netizen, who cited the broad reach of Chinese dynasties' tributary system. The People's Republic of China (PRC) does not lay claim on Palawan, an island province of the Philippines situated outside the nine-dash line. The 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling rejected the validity of China's claims where they exceed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. ==Incident==

In early 2025, social media posts surfaced that Palawan was allegedly once part of Greater China and was once known as "Zheng He Island". The posts on Weibo and Xiaohongshu claimed that Chinese admiral Zheng He visited Palawan in 1300s and the 1400s implying the island was part of Greater China during the Ming dynasty and should be "given back" to China. Another post claimed that the PRC has "restored" the name of Palawan. ==Response==

The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) issued a statement that Palawan has "always been Filipino" and that there is no historical evidence of it having a permanent Chinese population. It said that as early as 1521, chronicler Antonio Pigafetta noted that "Palawan was populated by communities of similar cultural affinity" of the rest of the Philippine archipelago. It added that maps and treaties confirm that Palawan was part of the Sulu Sultanate and later the Captaincy General of the Philippines. Palawan was affirmed to be part of the Philippines under the 1898 Treaty of Paris and 1900 Treaty of Washington. There is consensus in the Philippine military and security agencies that this is part of an information warfare. Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore posits that "this disputable information may have official acceptance to just rile the other side while the party state can claim plausible deniability". Chong compares the Palawan claim, to similar ideas that Okinawa and Siberia should be Chinese. == See also ==